Review essay: Gunter Grass

[...]Grass, ever the consummate craftsman, considered having his narrator Oskar give vent to the "outrage and scorn" (70) that Schlant misses in the latter's matter-of-fact account. [...]even in its articulation of the exculpatory strategies on the part of actual perpetrators or fellow travelers (e.g., in the chapter "Feuersteine and Grabsteine") the novel preceded-in some instances by a considerable margin-key events and writings, such as the Eichmann trial in 1961 and Hannah Arendt's subsequent Eichmann in Jerusalem (1963), that were to affect the perception of the Holocaust. [...]it is not unjustified to credit Grass with the role of "pioneer" in confronting the Nazi past (Preece, 38). [...]Grass's Privatleben does receive some attention without becoming dominant; other facets such as Grass's Weltruhm and his activities as a Grafiker seek to take the measure of the man and the artist.